Joan K. Harvey

1920 - 2018

Joan K. Harvey, age 97, died peacefully on Tuesday, January 16, 2018, in the Bishop White Lodge at Cathedral Village retirement community in Philadelphia, PA. Born March 28, 1920, in Greenwich CT, she is predeceased by her parents, Paul J. and Loretta (Brennan) Kennedy of Greenwich, CT, as well as her late husband of 63 years, John. R. Harvey.

After spending her early years in Greenwich, CT, Joan moved with her family to rural Hillsdale, NY, where she graduated from Roeliff Jansen High School in 1938. In the early 1940s, she took a job as a telephone operator with the New York Telephone Company. In the Spring of 1946, she met a young sailor who was leading a youth group at the local Catholic Church. He never had a chance. After a brief courtship, Joan and John Harvey were wed in December 1946 and moved to Washington, DC, where he attended a technical school for engineering. In 1949, they moved to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in scenic Berkshire County, near where Joan had lived in the 1930s. John took a job with General Electric and together they lived and raised their family in Pittsfield until 2004, when they retired to Philadelphia.

During her years in Pittsfield, Joan raised five children and made her family extremly happy. Over time, she designed a beautiful garden, perfected her cooking style, developed a golf game (she never could putt), and pursued her interests in the arts, cooking, and the Berkshires. She was a docent at the Berkshire Museum, the fundraising secretary for the campaign to purchase the home in Pittsfield where Herman Melville wrote Moby Dick, a member of the Berkshire Hills golf club, and an active parishioner and lector at St. Joseph's Catholic Church, in Pittsfield. She loved poetry and sitting outside. She had many friends and is the subject of many funny stories.

Joan is survived by two daughters, Sheila Harvey Corbishley (Bernard) of Syracuse, NY, and Jane Harvey Brown (Kerry) of New Orleans, LA, three sons, John R. Harvey, Jr. (Ruth), of Seattle, WA, Stephen G. Harvey (Mimi) of Philadelphia, PA, and Gerard B. Harvey (DaVina) of Big Pine, CA, nine grandchildren, and one great grandchild on the way.

Joan was preceded in death by her brother, Paul J. Kennedy of Norwalk, CT, Theresa Kennedy of New York, NY, Francis Kennedy of Stephentown, NY, and Roger Kennedy of Greenwich, CT.

FUNERAL NOTICE: A funeral mass will be held at Our Mother of Consolation Catholic Church in Philadelphia, PA, at 11 a.m. on Saturday, January 20, 2018, with calling hours at the church beginning at 10 a.m.

In lieu of flowers please make donations to your local United Way.